How to Break the Top-Down Feedback Trap

In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore a common but often overlooked leadership pitfall: the one-way nature of feedback in many teams.

While it’s often easy for leaders to give feedback, getting honest input in return can be much more difficult.

But if we don’t hear what our team really thinks, we’re not leading with the whole picture. Our leadership decisions are based on assumptions and inferences, instead of real insights.

Through a recent example from one of my leadership courses, I explore why feedback rarely flows naturally and, more importantly, what we can do about it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why your team may be hesitant to share honest feedback
• The safest (but not always the best) route employees take
• Three psychologically safe questions to encourage honest conversations
• The only proper response when someone shares their truth with you

If you want to lead with clarity and create an environment where people feel genuinely safe to speak up, this one’s for you.

Want Honest Feedback? Start with Ben AI

Getting honest feedback from your team isn’t easy.

People worry about overstepping the mark, sounding negative, or saying the wrong thing.

But here’s the good news: Ben AI is here to help.

Provided you talk openly to my AI Clone, he’ll give honest, candid advice and feedback.

And it’s completely free, because I believe high-quality leadership support should be available to everyone who cares about the people they lead.

Try Ben AI for yourself today.

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Start your conversation with Ben AI here.

 

Podcast Transcript: Creating Space for Upward Feedback

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: leadership isn’t about us as leaders having all the answers.

True leadership is about creating space for others to speak, share their views, and ensuring that communication is a two-way street.

So here’s the thing: there is often an imbalance in the feedback relationship between leaders or managers and their team members, and it’s usually skewed in favour of the leader.

What do I mean by that?

Feedback typically flows downward with relative ease. It’s much harder, however, for feedback to travel upwards – from team member to leader – and that’s a real problem.

In a recent leadership course I ran, someone asked me, “How do I share potentially sensitive feedback with my line manager?”

My initial response was, “Wait to be asked.”

It’s the safe option, perhaps the least career-limiting one. Of course, everything in leadership is contextual, so there are other approaches.

But that reply highlights a key point: feedback won’t naturally flow upwards, no matter how approachable we think we are as leaders.

This means we must proactively invite feedback.

We need to seek it out, whether it’s about our leadership style, decisions we’re making, or how we’re running the team or business.

So how do we do that?

One powerful way is to use psychologically safe phrases that make it easier for people to speak up. Try asking:

• “What’s one thing I could have done differently this week to support you?”

• “What am I not seeing from my perspective?”

• “What else can I do to make it easier for you to perform in your role?”

And I’m sure you’ve got your own favourites.

Make sure you’re actively inviting and requesting feedback.

Be intentional in your language to let people know it’s genuinely safe for them to share their thoughts with you.

And when they do, perhaps the most important response you can give is simply: “Thank you.”